Head of the Forvia factory in Kenitra, Morocco, Najlaa Elguennouni puts performance above all else

[Discover the women in industry 2024] Najlaa Elguennouni, the director of the Forvia factory in Kenitra (Morocco), is nominated for the Women in Industry Awards in the Woman in Production category. The awards ceremony, organized by L’Usine Nouvelle, will take place on September 24.

When she joined the auto equipment manufacturer Forvia, in 2016, Najlaa Elguennouni was the first woman to take the helm of an independent production unit in Morocco. “Forvia has never had a woman in this position. Plus, I came from outside,” she says. So he has to assert himself. Few managers trust him. “They told me the same things several times!” In three years, she propelled this unit among the best in the group. When younger, an excellent student, she chose to study at the National School of Mines in Rabat, where she developed a taste for industrial processes. “I liked working on machines, around subjects like renewable energies,” says the 43-year-old director. From SME to large group From 2007 to 2013, she held the position of quality and methods manager in an SME producing railway seating components. Becoming co-manager in 2013, she saw turnover jump 40%. But she is itching to join a multinational: “I wanted to evolve. Too immersed in daily life within an SME, I couldn’t get there quickly enough.” After three years in production at Forvia, she was appointed to the human resources department. This dual skill, technical and managerial, led her to become director of the Kénitra factory in 2023. She enjoys coaching the teams, but “likes to get back in touch with technology”. Mother of three children, Najlaa Elguennouni says she is proud to “have opened the doors of production to Moroccan women and to represent a small part of the solution to help them lead a dignified life”.